My job isn't to be 'nice'; it's to represent taxpayers' interests

By SIMON CAMPBELL

Thursday

Sep 29, 2011 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2011 at 6:00 AM

What is “nice” and how does an elected public official qualify for such a curious title?

I did a TV debate recently where a union boss in the public sector was literally screaming at me. All I had said was that I believe public sector unions should be eliminated; an entirely reasonable and rational position to take.

Public employees should be hired on an individual basis and treated no differently than folks in the private sector. In the private sector I really don’t care about unions one way or another, because it doesn’t involve our tax dollars.

As the union boss raised his voice I said “What makes you think I should bail out your pension, and guarantee your benefits until the day you die? How about you bail out mine?” You see, I think he’s the radical. It’s his position that is unreasonable, unfair, and extreme. The other side simply hates being called out on an argument they cannot win.

I don’t believe government employees should be allowed to “organize” against the public. There are no profits in the public sector, no fat cat CEOs, and it’s the public who pays the bills. It’s the everyday hard-working taxpayer who has to pay property taxes to fuel the demands of public sector unions. And it’s the public who elects people like me. I’m a Republican but there are plenty of Democrats who vote for me because they agree with me. It’s only the far-left liberal Democrats who complain I am not “nice.”

Well, it isn’t “nice” to throw children out of school on a strike, and it isn’t “nice” to exploit taxpayers by preying on parents desperate to get the schools open again. I’m not going to raise the property taxes of a fixed income senior so public employees who have a job for life, a pension for life, a 191-day working year, can get even more money. Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand. Meanwhile, liberals who believe that school boards negotiate contracts with teachers are hopelessly naďve.

School boards negotiate contracts with people called PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) Uniserv representatives. Those are the outsiders employed by the state teachers’ union. They earn six-figure incomes to walk into a school district and pull the chain of local union officials. If local union officials want to grow their careers inside the union then they’d better do what the Uniserv rep wants. The idea that a school board director negotiates with the typical classroom teacher is absurd. We negotiate with union officials and most teachers have no idea what is going on. Teachers are expected to blindly follow union leadership. Dissent is not permitted. That is the culture.

I chuckle when I hear the various theories about me. Apparently I’m using school board as a stepping stone to run for a state representative position. Oh, please! That would require me to suck up to Bucks County Republican Party bosses. Last time I got involved with them was when they sued me, after I had the temerity to get on the ballot for something called “State Committee” without seeking their permission.

That’s because I like to have a brain I call my own. State Committee roles are basically where party bosses get their hacks into positions to help dictate which candidates get money so you can be told who to vote for. Frankly, I have no patience for half the nonsense that goes on inside both political parties.

Strike? You’re fired. That’s my attitude. And if public sector unions and liberals don’t like it, I don’t care. Just run around and ask my tax-paying constituents to vote me out of office then. I’m happy to live by their wishes.

Teacher union officials bring hundreds of their members to school board meetings to shout, yell, and carry on, to intimidate elected school officials. This behavior is boorish and it has zero impact on me. I think that’s what drives liberals crazy about me. They know that when push comes to shove I will vigorously, even combatively, defend my constituents’ interests. Maybe that’s even nice.

Simon Campbell, Lower Makefield, is a Pennsburyschool board director.

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